"no one has the ability to make the distinction between a quack and real medicine" (paraphrasing OP)
What utter nonsense. If someone presented you with a homeopathic dropper [1] saying it would cure cancer vs a new gold nanoparticle experimental therapy [2], "no one" would be able to tell the difference?
While the new treatment may turn out to have issues (no one was suggesting experiments were risk free), to imply it's indistinguishable from quackery, is false.
Comments
"no one has the ability to make the distinction between a quack and real medicine" (paraphrasing OP)
What utter nonsense. If someone presented you with a homeopathic dropper [1] saying it would cure cancer vs a new gold nanoparticle experimental therapy [2], "no one" would be able to tell the difference?
While the new treatment may turn out to have issues (no one was suggesting experiments were risk free), to imply it's indistinguishable from quackery, is false.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
[2] http://bjr.birjournals.org/content/85/1010/101.full.pdf